July 15, 2009

The Sotomayor News from Planet Conservative

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Richard Viguerie, one of the founders of the modern conservative movement and a direct-mail king of the right, thinks the Senate GOPers are doing a pretty good job at the confirmation hearings of Justice-to-be Sonia Sotomayor. He put out this statement:

Led by Senator Jeff Sessions, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are starting to do what the McCain campaign and the Republican Party failed to do in the 2008 election: defining Barack Obama, his ideology, and his unconstitutional, authoritarian approach to governing.

By making the Sotomayor confirmation hearings about President Obama’s governing philosophy—including his beliefs that judges should change constitutional principles and the law—Senate Republicans are showing that Obama’s views are radical and dangerous. As Senator Sessions said at the hearings, those views are so inconsistent with the Constitution that they could be ‘disqualifying’ for Obama’s judicial nominee.

Win, lose, or draw in this confirmation battle, that approach will pay huge dividends for Republicans. Exposing the President in these hearings will help Americans better understand that, constitutionally speaking, Obama cannot be trusted…

So hats off to Senator Sessions and the other Republicans who ‘get it’.

Wow. He really is watching a different channel. How many Americans—of the small percentage of those who have watched the hearings for any extended length of time—are jumping off their couches and saying, “Gee, after seeing Senator John Kyl grill her, I now realize that Obaama is destroying the Constitution and cannot be trusted. Get me my pitchfork!”

I respect Viguerie for constantly putting ideology ahead of partisan loyalty. He blasts the Republicans whenever he thinks they’re squishy. But if he believes the hearing so far has been a net win for the Rs, he’s engaged in observational activism. A strict constructionist reading of the proceedings would score the GOPers as marginally significant at best. They have done nothing to bruise Sotomayor. They have done nothing to make the hearings a noticeable platform for advancing their retro views about the role of judges. I even wonder if the conservative base is following the hearings closely enough to be fired up by whatever Jeff Sessions and the others are doing, as Viguerie suggests. Let’s see if GOP candidates next year run on these hearings. If that’s what Viguerie is hoping for, I’ll bet he’s disappointed.

You can follow David Corn’s postings and media appearances via Twitter.
 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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